Are you curious about the blog war between north Minneapolis revitalizing neighbors and unidentified anonymous bloggers? It's really not as real as it seems. It's not real at all. This blog will chronicle Jim Watkins' epic obsession with John Hoff (aka Johnny Northside). Jim Watkins is devoting his life to ruining (*trying to*) Johnny and anyone who associates with him. Carry on to the body of this blog if you care enough for explanations and back stories. Northsideactivist@ gmail.

It's all an illusion, people. One guy carrying out his declared obsession through an elaborate smokescreen of voices, personalities, imaginative conspiracies and the illusion of real life supporters. Don't be fooled. Don't feed the fire.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

On the internet there is an endless supply of TJ Waconia blatherings. Articles. Forums. Blogs. Comment threads. On and on and on. Many of these suggest the thought that the TJ Waconia fraudsters disposed of cash and assets and socked away money to enjoy the good life after they did their measly little seven (Balko, anticipated release 7-2-2015) and eight (Helgason, anticipated release 5-15-2016) years.

So, let's think about this...

Jim Watkins is self-declared best friend of Thomas Balko and documented former employee of TJ Waconia.

Jim Watkins has done a bang-up job of carrying on the defense and sticking up for his buddy and former bosses. Even three years letter he's still lettin' 'er rip! Here, Johnny Northside even writes about how Watkins desperately tries to recruit him to help write a book about how TJ Waconia prosecution was just a political axe to grind. Just think of it, John Hoff is already a published writer. We all know how well John writes. Wouldn't it be great to recruit him into that task, defend the fraudsters all the way to a published book and soak up all the glory. I'm thinking book tour.

Some say TJ Waconia fraudsters have *possibly* stashed away some cash and hidden some assets for those glorious twenty-teen years.

Anybody catch my drift???? *You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours*

I can just hear it now... "Tom, buddy, pal, ya know I never did forget you. I went after your detractors every day. I never let them forget that they said mean things about you. I made their lives hell, I photoshopped every picture I could find. I stuck up for you and even for that no good friend of yours Jon. I mean, I know Jon's handsome and all that, but, I'm the one who sent you a postcard every day, Tom."

Me thinks someone is not as dumb as he might sound in all those endless made-up comment voices. Hmmm, maybe I should suck up to Anti-Johnny-Jordan-Hawkman-Jim-Watkins??? Thinking....thinking....
But in all seriousness, it really makes ya wonder why this guy can't let it go almost three years later. The amount of time and effort put into the thousands and thousands of made-up voice comments on half a dozen blogs really could advance his life forward in a big way, if he just applied himself.

The back story is that John Hoff grew tired of the constant harassment by text, by email, by comments submitted to the Johnny Northside blog, by targeting his own friends and family. Not to mention it extremely bothered him that the TJ Waconia fraudsters who had wreaked havoc on North Minneapolis hugely contributing to a debilitating foreclosure crisis, had resorted to harassing the people that spoke out against their mortgage fraud and criminal activities. It was clear Jim Watkins was acting on behalf of his good buddies, either by direct order, or by his own initiative and his own self-declared mission to "ruin" John Hoff.

So Hoff figured the prison authorities and parole board would be interested to see what was going on after the TJ Waconia fraudsters were incarcerated. Did the harassment and stalking of northside activists by the good friend and former employee of TJ Waconia really show remorse for their crimes? Does it show incarcerated prisoners reaching out through the very bars of steel that surround them?

First a short, sweet note straight to the fraudsters themselves. A bit later, a more lengthy explanation of why it is in their best interest for Jim Watkins to *not* be showing such disdain for the people left to live amongst the crime scene of the TJ Waconia fraudsters. Good Behavior = Early Release. Documented harassment of neighborhood activists committed by former TJ Waconia employee and self-declared best friend = Not Good Behavior.

When the prison postcards and letters were received by the TJ Waconia fraudsters, Jim Watkins was not happy. Text messages came flying in. Angry messages came via comments submitted to blogs. Increased blog postings and made up troll voices on comment threads. He even wrote about it himself.

Hoff took his remedy to the next level. He alerted the Duluth Federal Prison Authorities to Jim Watkins 2+ years targeting of him and others that was quickly turning into harassment and stalking, and expanding to anyone who seemed to associate with John. How can convicted criminals be allowed to have this sort of reach into the lives of people who spoke out publicly about their crimes and the impact it left on their very own neighborhood?

Prison authorities wrote back words to the effect of "your concern is valid and you should contact these involved authorities."

(Sorry for the cryptic summary, but it's best not to disclose too much info publicly)

Well, why so many hate blogs? Another good question. The first one came from his obsession with John Hoff aka Johnny Northside and grew out of all the attention that John was getting on the internet on his own blog. Jim Watkins dubbed himself the Anti-Johnny and tried to ride the coattails to get a little internet attention and be a thorn in the side of John Hoff. This was the first example of the many instances of copycatting that Jim Watkins will continue to create. He copied Johnny Northside's blog almost identically. He copied the url as close as he could. He rode that pony hard and set out on a mission of harassment, stalking and lies, all to fill his need for attention and get "revenge" (He admits it! We'll show you the many messages in which he admits it!)

He wasn't getting much attention, so he intensified. He blogged more, he created conspiracy theories of "special treatment" and political favors, despite the fact that he has zero involvement or inside information of the political winds here in North Minneapolis. He saw John blogging about successful (read 'winning elections') politicians. He saw John getting accolades in other media. He saw examples of John's writing getting picked up, redistributed, or further elaborated on in other places. John was getting a large following and a lot of attention. He was not creating the effect he wanted, ruining John Hoff wasn't working, but this isn't surprising since nothing this man, Jim Watkins, does is very successful. (Sorry for the link heavy text, but where else am I supposed to put all these examples of unsuccess?)

For some unknown reason, probably technical, or maybe not, he created a second Anti-Johnny site. Perhaps he thought blogger would take his misadventures site down because it too closely mimicked someone else's intellectual property. Who knows. But he didn't do much with that second Anti-Johnny site. Just a few more cleverly spun conspiracy theories. Mostly just regurgitating what he'd already put up elsewhere.

He became connected with a small handful of other Minneapolis malcontents. For example, during the 2009 Minneapolis city council campaign season, he reached out to loser candidate Lennie Chism, you know, the convicted woman abuser. He connected with a few other blogger-journalists who also spew out conspiracy theories and espouse their severe discontent with local politicians, such as the ones who keeping winning elections. It's pretty coincidental how the other crazy malcontents that teamed up with the Anti-Johnny were also tied to fraudsters and nefarious people that also enjoyed a starring role on Johnny Northside Dot Com. Birds of a feather....

So now Anti-Johnny has some local help to expand his harassment. Pictures. Local flavor to spice up his rantings. Assistance with creating the illusion that this is real. That there is some big push to ruin Johnny Northside and pals. (Well, okay, there is. The fraudsters, sex offenders, thug-huggers, slumlords and disenfranchised also-rans would REALLY like JNS to shut up, already!)

So why the third Anti-Johnny hater site? That's easy to answer. Alerting the prison authorities to Jim Watkins hate and obsession caused him to go under the radar. Anonymous and Unidentified. How Convenient.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Jim Watkins fled the state of Minnesota and sought shelter in Texas. It is not known why Texas, it is not known with who or where exactly he lives in Texas, nor does it matter. The fact is he is in DFW area and he is promoting himself as a real estate investor and mentor. Anyone notice lots of blogging about houses? The purchasing and selling of, the valuations of, the borrowing against,the subsidizing of... yup, real estate might be the only topic Jim Watkins-Anti-Johnny-Jordan Hawkman can dissect. NOT that everything he has written has been truthful and accurate. He just puts so much up there to make it look like it must be real.

Here's the back story of how Jim Watkins became "The Anti-Johnny"....

Photos found on JNS blog

Jim Watkins has two friends who are currently taking a federally subsidized vacation. For many, many years. Yes, they are in federal prison. One prisoner, Thomas Balko, is the self-proclaimed good, close buddy to Jim Watkins. The other prisoner, Jon Helgason, is apparently, according to Jim Watkins, less of a friend and more of just a business associate and acquaintance. These two guys had a company called TJ Waconia and were found guilty of boat loads of real estate fraud, mortgage fraud, investment fraud, whatever kind of fraud you want to call it involving houses, real estate transactions and defrauding investors.

TJ Waconia and the fraudsters Thomas Balko and Jon Helgason were a high profile case, getting lots of media attention and involved lots of victims in various victim forms. There is a blog for the victims to announce, communicate and interact with each other. Jim Watkins got into the habit of participating in this victims' blog, commenting, arguing, in general making a spectacle of himself. (Sound familiar? Anything to get some attention, right?) Apparently in defense of his mortgage fraudster buddies, what a nice, loyal friend, huh? Every criminal should have such loyal friends, don't ya think?

So on that blog--and another blog called Behind The Mortgage Dot Com--Jim Watkins began a cyber war with another blog participant who eventually dubbed himself Johnny Northside and Johnny Northside ended up starting his own blog, to write about his own neighborhood issues, stories, people, criminals, heroes, etc. This newly born blog was NOT dedicated to Jim Watkins, TJ Waconia, Balko or Helgason. However, Jim Watkins apparently felt the need to continue this cyber war with the new blogger Johnny Northside. A little obsessed with Johnny, I guess.

Now, almost two three years later, Jim Watkins the so-called "DFW Mentor" continues to stalk and harass Johnny Northside and has now grown his obsession to stalking and harassing the friends and girlfriend of John Hoff, aka Johnny Northside. He has spread his cyber stalking to other Minneapolis focused websites. For a period of time, the Minneapolis Mirror and IBNN News were assisting with the hate and harassment, each with their own reasons (note neither Jim Watkins, Minneapolis Mirror owner Terry Yzaguirre nor IBNN News owner Don Allen live in North Minneapolis). Jim Watkins has joined Minneapolis based message boards. He has joined alliances with the ugly underbelly malcontents of the local Minneapolis political and activist scene. All in the name of his obsession with blogger Johnny. He has done all this from Texas. The DFW area where he promotes himself as a real estate investor and mentor called the "DFW Mentor." (GOOGLE it!)

Why is Jim Watkins so obsessed with this blogger guy Johnny? Heck, even some of the bizarre blog posts and comments that the "Anti-Johnny" has written have a bizarre and creepy sexual innuendos and connotations to them.

Why is Jim Watkins still interfering with the Minneapolis neighborhoods where his close friends already defrauded millions in real estate investments? Why does Jim Watkins even waste his energy years later? These are all good questions. Some of them we can provide info and answers however some we can only ponder.

Well, who the hell is Jim Watkins? And why is he so dedicated to cyber-harassing a handful of neighborhood activists?

These are relevant questions bouncing around a tiny circle of the internet (really, it's tiny, despite made up reader numbers). And this blog will answer some of those questions and more.

There will be no comment thread. The intent is not to create another endless rant of frustration and hate between real people and a smokescreen with an agenda. Want to contribute something? Email me. Northsideactivist at gmail.

Sorry to disappoint, but this blog will not post pictures of Jim Watkins' house, family, friends, dogs, parents, vehicle, employer, or his dentist. This blog will only inform those wondering about what's the deal with the hater blog war? And wondering who Jim Watkins is. And wondering why is he obsessed with cyber-stalking a handful of people he doesn't even know, doesn't live near, doesn't work with or isn't involved with (besides his obsessed stalking and self-proclaimed agenda to "ruin"). And most importantly wondering WHY ISN'T THIS GUY IN PRISON ALREADY????

About Me

"There will always be critics who derive strength from your weakness. Ignore them. Do not give them power through your attention. Instead let them be liberated from their ignorance as they are forced to bear witness to your expanding truth."